Sam Mendes has reflected on why he feels it’s necessary to make a series of films about The Beatles.
The Oscar-winning director behind films including American Beauty and Skyfall announced plans to make four separate movies about the biggest band in history, one from the perspective of each member.
Last week, it was revealed that Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison, Barry Keoghan will play Ringo Starr, and Harris Dickinson will play John Lennon.
Writing in The Times about his BBC2 Second World War documentary, What They Found, Mendes compared the archival work to his forthcoming Beatles quadrilogy.
“As a film-maker, one is always looking to find new ways to look at the past. To turn historical events so they catch the light in new and different ways. My film 1917 was an attempt to do this,” he said.
“The Beatles films we are making now also fall into this category. And here again I felt the same portal to the past had been opened,” Mendes explained.
The filmmaker, who has been developing a story about the Fab Four for years, previously revealed the movies will premiere in April 2028.
While the Beatles’ rise to fame has been well-chronicled over the years, “I can assure you that there is still plenty to explore”, Mendes teased.
“Frankly, we need big cinematic events to get people out of the house,” he declared alongside the project’s announcement.
It comes after John Lennon’s half-sister echoed many Beatles fans’ criticism of the film’s casting, saying that the band should be played by Liverpudlian actors rather than Hollywood stars.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Lennon’s sister Julia Baird replied “Yes, of course” when asked if Lennon should be a scouser. “No one else can get that Liverpool intonation. Nobody,” she added.
On the subject of being consulted about the Lennon film, Baird commented: “[Mendes is] never going to ask me! I’m the last person he would want to talk to because then he can’t make it up.”
Fans were quick to air their opinions about the casting online. “One of the biggest things about the Beatles' essence and success was that they were just four young boys from Liverpool with a massive passion for music, so casting four grown men in their late 20's/early 30's when they weren't even 30 at the end of the Beatles ruins that magic,” one person wrote on X/Twitter.
“They don’t give off the vibe of unknown working class teenagers from post-ww2 Liverpool,” another user added of Mescal, Quinn, Harrison and Keoghan. “[I don’t care] if they don’t look like The Beatles, that’s not the problem here.”
However, other social media users were more optimistic about the casting choices. “So, here’s how Paul Mescal gets four Oscar nominations in one year,” one person wrote. Meanwhile another fan joked: “Happy birthday to me.”
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